It is very common to use a manifold system for efficiency when completing stimulation activity on a multiple well pad in connection with hydraulic fracturing at a drilling site. Typical manifold systems are intrinsically connected where high pressure sections are isolated by a valve or other pressure controlling mechanism. The fracturing fluid supply, provided by fracturing trucks for example, is pumped into a connector. The connector is connected to a fracturing manifold which takes the fracturing fluid input and outputs one line per well on the well pad. Each well is isolated from the manifold by a valve and additional valves may be found in the manifold itself. When fracturing, every valve but the valves leading to the well to be fractured are closed.
For example, FIG. 1 illustrates a common set up of a fracturing system 101 of the prior art in a four well pad 105. Each well in a multiwell pad gets fractured multiple times. In an example with four wells and 40 fracturing zones per well, the wells in a multiwell pad are fractured a total of 160 times. When fracturing the well pad, first, well A and the fracturing fluid pump 110 are isolated through the valves so that fracturing fluid only goes into well A. For example, valves B, C, and D would be closed while valve A is open, effectively isolating wells B, C, and D from the fracturing. Once well A is fractured, valve A is closed, well A is plugged and the next fracturing zone is perforated. Valve B is then opened allowing fracturing fluid to be pumped into well B, while well A, C, and D are isolated. This process is repeated cycling through each well. In the example of four wells and 40 fracturing zones per well, the process involving opening and closing valves to complete each fracturing stage would be repeated 160 times.
Each well has a fracturing tree and the fracturing trees within a pad are usually about evenly spaced; however, the spacing can vary by a couple of feet, the elevation of each tree can also vary by a couple of feet, and the angle of the tree may vary by a few degrees. This arrangement makes it such that connecting the valve to the tree is complex and can require multiple lines, multiple swivel joints, and/or expandable pipes, each individually adjusted, in order to properly connect the manifold 115 to each tree in the well pad. These connections tend to comprise 6 or more connectors or “legs” per connection from the manifold to the tree in order to generate the number of degrees of freedom needed to properly connect the manifold to the fracturing trees.
Further, when using a manifold, if a valve fails while fracturing through a manifold, other sections of the manifold may become unintentionally pressurized leading to no go zones and slowing the rate at which the well can go into production. As such, when actively fracturing a well, an exclusion zone exists around a well pad such that no other workover operations, such as perforation and plugging, can be performed on other wells in the pad. The exclusion zone requirement increases the time needed to fracture all zones, reducing the overall efficiency of the fracturing job.
The existing manifold designs require many adjustable connecting components in order to provide the required number of degrees of freedom for the manifold. Further, using a manifold leads to the potential for an unintended section to become pressurized. The current disclosure describes a solution which provides the same degrees of freedom with fewer connecting components through the ability to have a dynamic connection system. Further, the current disclosure provides a system that removes the need for exclusion zones as it does not include a manifold. The design of the current disclosure leads to more efficient fracturing operations.